Older Guys
by Tenbris
Summary: Age wasn't really on Susugi Sahara's radar when it came to her and Gertrude's relationship. For most humans, though, an eighty year difference is a little more than weird. (The Recipe for Gertrude)
The bell that overlooked the school's courtyard chimed the hour, and a collective sigh of relief rippled through the classroom, followed shortly by the scraping of seats, shifting of bags, and chatter. Lunchtime was almost something sacred, a blissful reprise from studies. Try as he may, bless him, the teacher could not purge his lessons of the monotonous boredom that school often created, and he left his students to their free time.

The moment the teacher was out of the room, door sliding shut and clicking behind him, a chair swung around, grating loudly against the floor as the girl in the seat spun to look at her friend. Susugi couldn't help but listen in on the exchange. "You won't _believe_ this, Nanae!" the girl gushed, excitement bubbling over. "Takeru asked me on a date! Takeru! I can't believe it! I thought he really never would look at me as a girl, it's like a dream come true!"

"Oh my gosh, _really?_ " squealed Nanae, launching herself forward to wrap her arms around the first girl's neck. "Misaki, I'm so happy for you! I knew it'd happen, the two of you have been close forever; it was just a matter of him pulling his head out of the sand. This is awesome!"

A smile quirked at Susugi's lips as she watched the pair. Misaki was a sweet girl who didn't stand out too much, but she had pined for her childhood friend Takeru for years. Everyone who knew them both saw the way they looked at each other, but apparently Takeru had been oblivious for quite a long time. The two of them were well-suited for each other though, Susugi decided, and knowing that their mutual pining had produced results was heartwarming. She pulled her lunch, courtesy of Mariotte, out of her bag and glanced at her phone. There were no new messages, but Susugi's gaze lingered for a moment on her background, a shot of her and Gertrude at an amusement park. They had just gotten off of a roller coaster, Gertrude's first experience on one, and while Susugi was beaming at the camera, Gertrude looked as if he was ready to pass out. Still, he had tried to smile for the photo, even if it came out looking like a grimace. Susugi smiled and snapped her phone shut.

"So they're finally gonna date, huh?" Susugi looked up at her friend Aiko who had stopped to stand by her desk. "It's been a long time coming hasn't it?"

"Yup, it really has," replied Susugi as she took a bite of her lunch. She swallowed, then continued. "It's nice to see them happy though. I guess going from friends to dating really makes a difference, huh?"

"Yeah," said Aiko, sliding into the desk adjacent to Susugi's. " _Speaking_ of dating, though…," she began, a slow grin spreading across her face, " _I_ want all the juicy details about _your_ boyfriend."

Susugi almost choked on a bite of rolled egg.

" _What_?" she coughed, face turning red from more than just the lack of air. "I mean…. What? What are you talking about?" She and Gertrude were indeed dating, for lack of a better term. However, he was an old and powerful demon, and it wasn't in either of their best interests to broadcast their relationship to the world, particularly to chatty high school girls. Heat seared Susugi's skin as she tried to plan her escape route.

"Oh, don't _lie_ to me!" Aiko gave Susugi a withering stare before going back to smiling. "That silver haired boy with the blue eyes. I've seen you hanging out with him outside of the gates before and after school, and I don't believe for a second that you aren't at least interested in him! So, I want the scoop. Is he foreign? A college student? Older than that? I'd know if he went here, and I haven't heard of him from my friends at other high schools."

Taking the outs she was given, Susugi just nodded along. "Uh, yeah," she said, piecing her story together as she went. "He's older, yeah. And, uh, from England. He moved here due to, um, family pressures." They weren't lies, not really. Half-truths at best, but telling Aiko that he was a demon created from the body parts of other demons who fled to Japan was not going to fly. Fitting in Susugi's own part in the story would be even less believable; 'My brother is actually possessed by the spirit of my boyfriend's creator and tried to kill us both so that he could free the souls of his wife and her twin sister from Gertrude's body' was probably an even harder pill to swallow than the whole demon business. No, sticking with barebones believable human stuff was definitely the right way to go.

Aiko latched onto the tidbits that Susugi offered up with fervor. "He's older?" she echoed, sounding excited now. "How much older? College-age? Even older than that? He's not actually _graying_ , he just dyes his hair, _right?_ He looks way too young to be gray. Susugi Sahara, I forbid you to date an old man!" Susugi sputtered, but Aiko kept plugging on. "And England, huh? How fancy! I wonder if he's well-off if his family sent him to live in Japan."

Gertrude's age was absolutely _not_ something that Susugi wanted to get into, and she hoped desperately that if she followed the England topic rather than the age one that she could escape it altogether.

Her hopes were dashed the moment that two more chairs spun around, Nanae and Misaki joining the fray. Fueled by her own recent romantic success, Misaki was the one to chime in. "Wait, Sahara, you're dating an older guy?"

Never before had Susugi wished for Puppen or Mariotte to barge into her classroom and cause some often-embarrassing havoc, but there was a first time for everything. Perhaps Coleman could come back to kidnap her again; that would be easier than talking with her classmates about her love life. It wasn't just Nanae and Misaki listening either. A quick glance around the room showed a few other students turned to face the cluster of girls, and one boy was even consoling his apparently-heartbroken friend. Susugi prayed for the floor to open up beneath her and swallow her, but no such luck.

She groaned, face pinking once again. It wasn't so much that she was embarrassed about having a boyfriend, nor did their age gap bother her. However, her school life and personal life were markedly separate barring for the occasional intrusions by Puppen and Mariotte when they were planning on going to club meetings, and she liked it that way. Still, people demanded answers, and not responding would only make the implications worse.

"I guess," she mumbled, and Aiko wolf-whistled at her. Nanae gasped, and Misaki grinned. "I mean, it's not _that_ bad!"

"How old is he then?" prodded Misaki, emboldened by her own joy.

"Not a businessman, I hope!" chimed Aiko, nudging Susugi with her elbow and waggling her eyebrows. "I mean, from what I've seen he's cute, so I approve anyways. But still!"

Susugi's half-truth policy was her only line of defense, and here it seemed shaky at best. 'He's older' was safe, but anything more specific treaded into total falsehood's territory. Still, most of the classroom was waiting for an answer, and she had to deliver something. "Uh… I'm not sure about specifics?" she began, gauging reactions. Nanae furrowed her brows, undoubtedly wondering if someone who couldn't disclose their age was safe, and Misaki pouted. Aiko did not seem to buy it at all. "I'd say… something like six more?"

Nanae breathed a sigh of relief as Aiko whistled again, and the classroom seemed to shift, attention diverting away from Susugi once the potential for a much-older-guy scandal dissipated. Six years would have sounded worse when she and Gertrude had first met, but as she neared 20 years of age it was a little less outlandish. Was it her fault that they assumed six _years_ instead of six _decades_? Even then it was a conservative "guess," seeing as reality was more like eighty years difference, but what were a few decades, give or take? There was no way anyone would ever believe her if she told the truth.

The rest of lunch passed uneventfully, aside from Aiko occasionally waggling her eyebrows in Susugi's direction, and the same went for the last few classes of the day. When the bell rang to dismiss the last period, Susugi quickly gathered her things and waved goodbye to her friends. As she left the room, Aiko shouted after her, "Say hi to your foreign cutie for me!"

Susugi's cheeks were still tinted pink from the teasing when she found Gertrude waiting for her outside of the school gate.

He quirked an eyebrow. "You doing alright there?" he asked, slinging an arm around Susugi's shoulder.

She leaned her head back against his chest and smiled, looking up to meet his eyes. "Yup!" she chirped. "You ready to go?"

"Of course," Gertrude replied, using his free hand to ruffle Susugi's hair despite her attempts to swat his hand away. "But no roller coasters. I don't think I've finished recovering from last time yet."

Susugi's laughter was warm and refreshing, but her next words chilled him.

"No promises!"

* * *

 _It's been a while, world! Try as I may, I can't stop being madly in love with The Recipe for Gertrude. I know you all (and me) expected Soul Eater probably, but hopefully that'll come again in the future! I'm not dead, and I still adore SE._

 _The concept for this story was inspired by a comic on Pixiv._


End file.
